Battle of Hue (1974)

The Battle of Hue was fought in 1974 during the 1975 Spring Offensive, the last major communist offensive of the Vietnam War. The Viet Cong, also known as the NLF, overwhelmed the Vietnamese royal capital of Hue after a destructive battle which saw the ARVN forces suffer heavy losses.

History
By late 1974, the South Vietnamese government was in control of An Giang, Kien Phong, Saigon, Tuyen Doc, and Pleiku Provinces across the country, while the Viet Cong only held Binh Long in the southern half of the country, located along the Cambodian border. However, the Viet Cong, with the help of the North Vietnamese, launched a lighting offensive in late 1974, aiming to destroy the South, which now stood alone against North Vietnam and the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong decided to capture the neutral region of Quang Nam, attacking the regional capital of Hue.

The ensuing battle saw the South Vietnamese engage the Viet Cong in brutal urban warfare, and they came under heavy artillery fire from NVA-supplied artillery. The South Vietnamese were forced to fall back across the bridges towards the city center as the Viet Cong forced their way through their defenses, and it was not long before the entire city was overwhelmed by the VC forces. The South Vietnamese were forced to abandon Hue, and Quang Nam became a VC-controlled province.